King Oddball Out Today on PS Vita

Hi, Playstation.Blog readers! 10tons is back this week with another PS Vita game — a unique and eccentric, skill-based puzzler called King Oddball.

As the title states, King Oddball is… unusual. Sure, the Angry Birds comparison comes to mind quickly, but King Oddball stands on its own handsomely.

Like Angry Birds, King Oddball is about clearing the level of enemies by squashing them with lobbed objects. And the way it’s done is all about physics.

Unlike Angry Birds, King Oddball’s levels fit in single screen, and there’s (basically) only one kind of ammo to lob: rocks. And you don’t get to throw them around any way you please, either. Oh, no. The King automatically picks up the rocks and swings them back and forth by his tongue, and the player merely releases the rock by pressing X or tapping the screen. That’s it.

It may sound easy, and it is… until it gets hard. It may also sound simple, and it is… until it gets complicated. The beauty of the gameplay mechanics lies in the fact that we’ve tightened the physics engine’s precision screws as tight as they go. That way we achieve accuracy and predictability with the way the rocks bounce and roll. You really need that predictability, because typically there are many more enemies to take out than you have rocks for, so you need to take out several targets with each rock. That, in turn, requires perfect timing when releasing the rock.

I guess it’s difficult to explain well. Try the game yourself — there’s a free trial!

When we developed King Oddball, we had the gameplay down early and knew it was good. We had a whole lot more trouble coming up with the theme and related bells and whistles which would fit the gameplay. All we were sure about was that it wouldn’t be about cartoon animals.

Eventually, the design became a bit surreal, and we soon realized more surreal is the way to go. We’re really happy with how it all turned out. Who, or what, is King Oddball? We all have our own pet theories. Why does he want to destroy the world? Your guess is as good as mine. What the heck is the tongue and the rocks about? Not sure, make what you will of it!

The icing on the art style cake is the awesome soundtrack (which was recorded live, by the way). There’s not nearly enough accordion in games.

Well don’t know what to say,this game already released for iOS and also supporting iOS 7 Game Controllers and i have MOGA Ace Power controller….so a bit agree with second post…waiting for special VITA games..

Funny how comments 1 and 4 are both interested in this game, at least on a curious level, being that they are PLUS subscribers, and get free little games, as well as big games, a lot, while comments 2 and 3 both compare it to garbage. Not saying this is a Killzone: Mercenary’s level quality game, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. It could suck. I don’t know. Haven’t played it. But give it a chance, and the benefit of the doubt, that it may hold some unique gameplay. I’d be surprised if someone went through the effort to release an Angry Birds clone, which is itself a clone, if they didn’t have something neat in mind, on the VITA. Art style looks interesting, and depending on the price, I may try it out. Would like a demo first though. Those are always good for those on the fence about how fun a game may, or may not, be.

@6. This seems to be a port of a mobile app that’s been out for awhile, so you should find plenty of video of it on YouTube. As an older mobile port, I just hope the pricing is more in line with Nun Attack (under $5) than Angry Birds. I’ll definitely check out the demo.

Content-wise King Oddball on PS Vita is the same as on other platforms. Personally I find the game a bit more comfortable to play on PS Vita though, as the responsiveness of a good hardware button is hard to beat, especially with a game as timing intensive as King Oddball.

I played the android version of this on my Galaxy S3, and it’s fun. Got it for free from Amazon, as the free app of the day. I hope the Vita pricing is fair and comparable to the android version’s.
I laughed so hard when I saw Angry Birds on PSN for $39.99. You’ve got to be kidding me! It’s free every other week for smartphones.
Please don’t make the same mistake with this game.

The music is encoded in some high quality Ogg, can’t remember the exact settings out of the top of my head. The graphics are high quality as well (we downscale from source art even for retina screen iPads). There’s also a setting in the Options menu to turn off the grainy full screen noise effect if you don’t like it.